Prototype’s interior remained disguised but optional hi-def screens have since been revealed
FIRST DRIVES
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And that is quite enough about
the Taycan’s static qualities. You sit
low i n t he c a r, i n l i ne w it h Por s c he ’s
determination to present the Taycan
as a sporting, driver’s machine,
despite its mass, electric powertrain,
four doors and (reasonably) spacious
c a bi n. Shut y ou r e y e s a nd y ou c ou ld
a l mo s t b e i n a 911.
Press a button to put the car in
standby mode and depress a little
le v e r t o k no c k it i nt o d r i v e. We e a s e
away from the Weissach test track
and out onto the public road.
The strange thing here is that,
even having spent many hours in
the Taycan’s passenger seat in the
Arctic, I still don’t really know what
t o e x p e c t. Fa c t i s t h at w h i le e le c t r iccars from major manufacturers
are becoming considerably more
common, there has still never been
one like this, or even remotely so. For
all the apparent familiarity, this still
feels like the biggest voyage into the
unknown for years.
And yet... Sitting in this brand-new
car with its brand-new platform and
powertrain, here’s something very
familiar. It feels like a Porsche. Not
like a Cayenne or Panamera but –
and it feels silly saying it, given the
weight of the car and the length of
its wheelbase – something closer to
a 911. And I’ve not done 30mph yet.
It’s all about the steering: the heft,
the precision, the off-centre linearity
all are cut straight from the Porsche
sports car textbook.
I find it utterly surprising and
profoundly reassuring, not least
because now we’re out of Weissach
a nd t i me i s shor t. I h av e t o d r i v e f a s t
right away, despite every other seat
being occupied by Porsche engineers.
I don’t much like driving rapidly with
anyone in the car, let alone overseen
by the best in the business, but there
is no choice.
The Turbo S (if that is its name) is
fast enough to make you feel giddy
on overboost. The torque delivery is
s o i n s t a nt , t he a c c e le r at ion s o v iole nt
and explosive, that it’s brief ly not that
pleasant an experience. And that’swith 700bhp. I don’t find it hard to
imagine what any one of the growing
mob of 2000bhp electric hypercars
will be like: I find it impossible.
The rate doesn’t really abate until
y ou’r e w e l l i nt o l ic e nc e -lo si n g
territory, and you’ll be fearing for
your liberty before it becomes in any
way normal.
The sound? Unmistakably
electric, for sure, but not unpleasant ◊
CONTROLLING
THE TAYCAN
Despite its weight, the Taycan’s
chassis engineers insist that at
and over the limit, the Taycan is
the most controllable Porsche
made today. It is certainly capable
of the most extravagant yet easily
recovered drifts, but why?
First, it has the lowest centre
of gravity of any current Porsche
and almost as low as that of the
918 Spyder hypercar. Second, it
has near-ideal weight distribution,at 49% front, 51% rear. Third, and
most important, is the speed at
which it can react both to inputs
from the driver and information
from the road. The throttle
response is five times quicker than
that of an internal combustion
engine and its ability to react to
detected wheel slip no less than 10
times faster, at a brain-boggling
two milliseconds.
As for fears of the car having to
limit power after repeated use, one
Taycan completed 26 back-to-
back launch control runs from rest
to 125mph, after which the test
had to be abandoned not through
weakness of the car’s powertrain
but of its driver’s stomach.